Festering Wound MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 2 |
| Rarity | Uncommon |
| Type | Enchantment — Aura |
| Abilities | Enchant |
| Released | 1999-06-07 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Urza's Destiny |
| Set code | UDS |
| Number | 61 |
| Frame | 1997 |
| Layout | normal |
| Border | black |
| Illustred by | Chippy & Matthew D. Wilson |
Key Takeaways
- Offers card advantage by inflicting incremental damage each turn, enhancing board development.
- Instant speed during upkeep disrupts opponent’s play, but the discard requirement can hurt.
- Despite mana constraints, it remains a versatile pick with potential for combative synergy.
Text of card
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put an infection counter on Festering Wound. At the beginning of the upkeep of enchanted creature's controller, Festering Wound deals X damage to that player, where X is the number of infection counters on Festering Wound.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Festering Wound enables incremental card advantage by allowing for repeated damage over a series of turns. This can chip away at an opponent’s life total while you continue to develop your board.
Resource Acceleration: Despite not directly accelerating resources, its low casting cost facilitates early board presence without delaying your mana curve, allowing for efficient deployment of other strategies alongside it.
Instant Speed: While Festering Wound is an enchantment, its ability to interact at instant speed during the upkeep phase can catch opponents off-guard. This capability applies pressure each turn and exploits timing to disrupt your opponent’s plans.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: One drawback of Festering Wound is the necessity to discard a card when using its ability. This can be a significant setback, especially when your hand is already diminishing, and every card counts.
Specific Mana Cost: The card has a stringent color-specific mana requirement, costing two black mana and one colorless. This can restrict its incorporation into multicolored decks or those that might struggle with generating enough black mana consistently.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: For three mana, Festering Wound might be considered somewhat expensive given its effect. Players may find other removal or control cards that offer a more immediate or impactful advantage without the same level of investment.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Festering Wound is a unique enchantment that can adapt to various deck types. It performs efficiently in decks focused on damage over time and indirect control of opponent strategies.
Combo Potential: This card can be a key piece in synergistic plays, particularly in strategies that involve proliferate mechanics or increasing the number of counters on opponents’ creatures for amplified effects.
Meta-Relevance: With creature-based strategies commonly seen across formats, Festering Wound can be a smart tech choice. Its ability to weaken opposing creatures makes it particularly useful in metas where creature preservation is pivotal for your adversaries.
How to beat
Festering Wound is a unique enchantment in the MTG universe. When applied to a creature, it inflicts incremental damage to the opponent during their upkeep, reflecting the slow and inevitable pain of a lingering injury. Unlike instant damage spells or direct creature destruction, Festering Wound’s power lies in its ability to slowly whittle away at an opponent’s life total, akin to the slow torture of attrition warfare. This can subsequently become a ticking time bomb that demands attention.
Navigating around this persistent threat involves a few key strategies. First, consider incorporating enchantment removal into your deck, with options such as Disenchant or Naturalize. These cards offer a direct and often cost-effective way to eliminate Festering Wound before it deals too much damage. Secondly, be mindful of the creatures you control, prioritizing the protection of your most valuable assets or keeping a healthy rotation of fodder creatures to absorb the imminent doom this enchantment brings. Lastly, life gain strategies can help to offset the gradual loss inflicted by Festering Wound, making it less of a decisive factor in the long game.
Utilizing these countermeasures can empower players to dismantle the Festering Wound’s strategic advantage, allowing them to focus on piloting their deck to victory without the constant pressure of losing vital life points each turn.
Cards like Festering Wound
Festering Wound is a unique enchantment card in Magic: The Gathering that allows players to incrementally deal damage to their opponents. When assessing its place amongst other cards with gradual damage capabilities, one notable alternative is Virulent Wound. It inflicts immediate -1/-1 counters which could lead to creature death and a poison counter right away, differing from Festering Wound which requires time to build up its impact.
Another comparable card is Stab Wound, which reduces the creature’s power and toughness while dealing damage to the creature’s controller during their upkeep. Although slower than instants like Virulent Wound, Stab Wound offers a more significant ongoing threat to larger creatures and continuous damage to the opponent. By contrast, Festering Wound deals a single point of damage each turn, irrespective of the creature’s size, offering a steady, predictable damage output.
In the realm of incremental damage, Festering Wound provides MTG players with a reliable tool to pressure opponents over time. It’s distinct in its ability to inflict damage at a consistent rate, positioning it as a strategic option for players seeking to exploit long-term battle plans.
Cards similar to Festering Wound by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Festering Wound MTG card by a specific set like Urza's Destiny, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.
For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.
Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.
Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Festering Wound and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See Magic products
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Festering Wound has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Premodern | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Festering Wound card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2004-10-04 | If it is on your creature, you can decide whether to add a counter before or after it damages you. |
| 2004-10-04 | Putting on a counter is optional. If you forget, you can’t go back later even if it is something you usually do. |
